Re:Monster - Volume 3 - Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Day 96 ~ Day 100

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Day 96

We arrived at Fortress City, ≪Trient≫, around noon. It was a large city surrounded by large, robust white walls. It would be very difficult to take down this fortress given that even siege weaponry have been built into the walls of the city.

As I was thinking about that, there seems to have been a large commotion around us. It's probably because of myself, being a Black Ogre, accompanied with both Kumajirou and Kurosaburou

It seems like I may not even be able to set a foot into the city... It's safe to say that the current situation might even turn into a dire situation... But just then, the Deputy Manager arrived and forced the guards to allow me entry. It goes to show that the Deputy Manager is actually pretty influential in this region.

To show my gratitude, I agreed to sell some of my Turtle Snake shells pretty cheaply to him. Anyway, I decided it might be best to hide my body in a cloak, even though it couldn't hide my horns, but at least I make less of a scene now..

Humans made up the majority of the population within the Fortress City, though I did see some members of different beast races and some subhuman races as well. I'd have to say that the human to non-human ratio is around 6:1.

The city was all in all very lively; the shops were aligned on the main street; cheerful sounds and laughter of children resounded through the street; lights came from different buildings, and the over all spirit was nice.

There are certainly dark aspects in this city as well, but for the most part, it's a city that you can enjoy.

I visited various shops after entering the town, and later in the day, I went to look for an inn to spend the night. Today was quite busy.

I plan to stay at this city for four or five days.

I also told the human girls that they could either come with me or stay here in the city when I left, and that I would respect their decision either way.

* * * 

Day 97

Today, I'm guided by Redhead through the city. We went to a building complex that she referred to as, the <<Central Guild Government Building>>. Those with me at present are Dhammi-chan and Redhead. Blacksmith-san had come in to the city as well, but is exploring the city with a Lord and three others as escorts. She said that she planned to sell some of our lower quality items to gain some funds to shop with tomorrow. I'll say this once, the <<Central Guild Government Building>> is a pretty big, respectable facility to be certain.

It seemed to be a three-floored building from the outside. The first floor was mostly comprised of a tavern theme with multiple locations for drinking liquor throughout the floor. I have to say that if it wasn't for Redhead giving me a light nudge on the arm, I might have gotten distracted. I really like alcohol after all, so even if I stayed here drinking for the entire day, I probably wouldn't have minded. At any rate, there were several individuals who pulled their swords on me in surprise the moment that I pulled down my hood, and I had to actively repress my instinct to counter. For them, holding their swords out is a pretty legitimate defensive measure to calm themselves. Indeed, killing in the city might be a bad idea, though when one of them made a go at me, I gave the lightest brush at them as I possibly could. Judging from the way his arm bent, it was probably broken. Nothing to be done. It was either that or take a sword-point in the eye. The receptionist seemed to be more of a calmed figure than the others standing in the lobby. I looked through a list of quests that required hunting animals in the surrounding area; there were several of these missions.

I pulled the necessary items from my item box and handed them over the counter. The missions were pretty simple, such as gathering several Boruforu hides. While I was at it, I made a request to have Redhead registered as a member of the guild within this city. While that was in progress I went to gather the rewards for the several quests that I had already completed. I also wanted to gather more information and gold from selling some random goods. One of the rewards I received was pretty dull, though for an adventurer of moderate levels such as Redhead, it could have proven to be useful. I ended up meeting an interesting old man who was quite knowledgeable. As it turns out, he was responsible for much of the guild's dealings.

As I continued my conversation with the old man, Redhead walked up and informed me that her current rank in this guild was one higher than it had been in her previous guild. Satisfactory, given her current abilities; it matches her quite fittingly.

Well, I wonder how Blacksmith-san has fared. Well, in all it doesn't have too much to do with me. After a while in the town, we met up with Alchemist-san's group, so I decided to have a small date with the Redhead and Alchemist-san while shopping. Although I really don't get why shopping has such a significance with women or why they needed to shop for so long. Though its fair to say that this is a common occurrence with both world's I have been a part of. I was tired after several hours of constant shopping, and I would have ended up holding everything if it wasn't for my item box.

By the way, there was a fellow that had been following me for some time, so I had the girls go on ahead while I walked down an alleyway. There, he made his attack, though I left him pummeled on the ground with one swing. I stripped him completely naked - think of it as a fitting punishment instead of me just simply killing him flat out.

That said, I really wonder what I can do to prevent people from noticing me.

I trained lightly with Dhammi-chan and Redhead after we returned and then went to sleep.

* * * 

Day 98

It's early in the morning, after some light training with the girls in a vacant lot near the inn, I decided I would be walking the streets alone today.

Dhammi-chan said that she and Blacksmith-san would go shopping for clothes. I managed to get the three Lords, Fire Lord-kun and Illusion Lord-kun, to do the porter work for today. Since Wind Lord-chan is also a woman, she should enjoy shopping with the other girls today.

Given that they have become my scapegoats for today, I pulled them aside and quickly gave them my thanks before heading out myself.

As I would be wandering alone, my hood and cloak alone cannot cover my Ogre body. I used [Metamorphosis] and [Shapeshift] to change my body into my previous human form.

I need to be careful, it's better not to become suspicious here and create a scene.

I continued with my information gathering in the city as I wandered around; rumors spread very quickly here, you know.

Basically, Ogres are known as Monsters that often go out of their way to harm other species. The same may not be said about a rare Ogre Mage, who rarely attack humans; but given their recognition as a very dangerous race, humans will probably be even more cautious around them. My troubles at the gate can also be attributed to it.

The situation at the gate happened because they had no ability to recognize that I was different than most other Ogres.

Just baseless prejudice. Typical of human nature.

I walked along the city's main street for about three hours or so. I stopped for lunch at a restaurant and spent some time gathering information. After a while, I left to continue exploring the city.

Since I wore some pretty good equipment, some thugs must have thought I would be a good target.

As a result, they started to trail me. There seems to be six thugs in total, armed with things such as knives and hatchets. The most amusing aspect about these idiots was their "Gwehehe" squeaking laughter. I found the similarity to the stereotypical villain to be quite amusing.

I walked down an alleyway to coax the idiots into attacking me. When there was no one around, the thugs began their attack without even bothering to threaten me. Since I had actually forgotten that I'm in my human form, and my body is far smaller than I'm used to, my sense of distance was distorted and the first knife managed to pierce right through my heart.

Unfortunately for my opponents, I'm still an Ogre, just in human form. This wound was nothing to me what so ever. Seeing that I hadn't died, nor was I even in pain, the thug who stabbed me pulled back in surprise. I played with them for awhile, making them suffer greatly until they wished I would kill them, to which I would oblige the second they asked. I'm not cruel after all. I would end it quickly by snapping their necks. I decided to eat their corpses in the back alley. Even though no one appeared on my 【Sense Presence】, I still ate them as quickly as I could.

Ability unlocked [Job-Thief]

Ability unlocked [Silent Stab]

Ability unlocked [Smoke Bomb]

The six of them appeared to have been thieves. Since there was a common pattern on the rings that each of them wore, it would seem that they belonged to the same organization and that this organization may have a large number of members.

Well, this really had nothing to do with me, so I decided to leave it here for now.

None of their equipment was worth collecting, so I just dissolved all of their worthless possessions with my acidic body fluids, clearing the site completely of the death of these six people.

Walking around the back ally a while, expecting more thugs to try and jump me, I saw a boy violently arguing with five men.

Those men had a hardy and tough aura, and their average age was around the late twenties. Having knives on their chests, I suspected that bloodshed is an ordinary subject for these individuals.

At the same time, the young boy in the center of the men was about thirteen or fourteen years old.

His blonde hair reflected the dim light in the alley; he actually had a very pretty face the way it was shining. No doubt, he would grow up to be a very handsome figure of a man in the future. He was wearing silvery-white light armor, a cape and a red cloak. He might be the apprentice of a knight, judging from the sword strapped to his hip. From the looks of him, I would guess that he comes from a high-standing noble family of a high breed.

While I was hiding, I decided to eavesdrop. Apparently, the situation was something about a kidnapping.

The Boy Knight seemed to be pressing the thugs to get information. As he continued, he slowly made ready to unsheathe his blade at a moment's notice. I wasn't very interested in getting involved. In fact, I actually thought about going back, but then... then I noticed that these thugs had the same rings on their fingers as the ones I ate earlier had.

Just when I thought I had convinced myself not to watch any further for risk of involving myself, as expected, a fight broke out.

Though the thugs outnumbered him, but the boy had better equipment by far. The difference in number, however, was not that easy to overcome. In the end, the boy ended up overwhelmed by the five thugs and captured.

One of the men lowered his knife to the boy's chest while the rest of the thugs held him down. That one man put enough power into his swing to cut through a horse as he went to pierce the defenseless boy's chest. At that point, I jumped in and knocked out all five of the thugs. I decided to leave them all alive, for now. Using my [Parasite] ability on them, I planned to investigate the location of the thug's hiding place, just in case.

I carried the worn-out boy and left the place. Since it's troublesome, not to mention easy to be caught leaving the scene as I was with several fainted men behind me, I made sure to stash the thugs so they would not be discovered.

Once we had arrived at a remote location, I saw to curing the Boy's injuries, for a fee of course. The boy was quite livid at me for letting the thugs live, I passed him a lie saying that I had already killed them and I was responsible for saving his life. It was only a partial lie; I probably will end up killing them once they serve their purpose. When asked who I was, I gave him a vague answer, stating that "I'm just an ordinary mercenary", without revealing who I actually was.

* * * 

Day 99

It's three in the morning, and the city is still shrouded in darkness. I decided it would be more suitable to be in my Ogre form rather than my human body. Together with me, are Dhammi-chan and Illusion Lord-kun. In front of us, is the figure of the Boy Knight who I helped yesterday. The story goes that when I took the boy to an inn, he was contacted by a mysterious individual.

Although he hadn't come back for an hour, he had requested that I would stay here and bring assistance for something important. With my curiosity piqued, I saw no reason not to, at the very least, see this point through. It was then that the boy made his request. Mercenary or not, what he needed was an arm for hire, and after I accepted his single term, he revealed that he was apparently on a mission to rescue the Tomboy Princess, whom he serves.

It seems that the Tomboy Princess had come incognito to ≪Trient≫, though during her stay in the city, she went missing. It seems that the abduction of the princess had been orchestrated by an organization led by a kidnapping leader. The ransom request had been sent, and that trade was what I had witnessed yesterday. The reason that the boy had left in a hurry was to drop off the ransom that he had on his person.

The reason that he had been arguing was because the thugs had claimed they wanted more gold for the princess than had previously been requested. Well, it looks like it might work out well after all, since I had already placed parasites within the thugs. If things go smoothly, I should be able to go directly to their base of operations.

Ah yes, and on the topic of calling the Boy Knight, well, "Boy Knight," I was quickly corrected that his name was Nomeshi. I'll ignore the rudeness, especially since if I slap him, he might die.

When I tracked the location, it seems that the thugs' hideout was a mansion of a former noble who had fallen from grace. It seems that more may be connected to this issue than a mere royal kidnapping, as humorous as saying that sounds.

Although the royal escort team was also with the Boy Knight, I wasn't keen on having them come along; stealth holds a major importance, so only a small elite force should go after the Princess. However, the employer is the Boy Knight, so I'll follow him, reluctantly, because of our contract.

Redhead was still sleeping along with the rest of the girls. The other two Lords are keeping guard, so there shouldn't be any need to worry about them. I also don't need to wake them for this matter. Three people should suffice. I am, of course, excluding the existence of the boy since his worth in battle is near zero compared to us.

As soon as we arrived at the hideout of the organization, I created ten Black Skeleton Assassins and sent them to slaughter any lookouts that might sound an alarm. After several minutes, there were ten human bodies.

After there was no further risk of being detected from the outside, I personally entered the enemy hideout. The result, to tell the truth, was that the entire organization was destroyed before the sun even rose. The leader of the Bandits had passed out after drinking too much, and after I easily killed him, the others all died without any difficulty. I didn't spare a single one. After all, I had to follow my contract to the letter. To this end, I had no complaints.

We safely rescued the Tomboy Princess. Contrary to my expectations, due to her nickname, she was quite the thin, fragile-looking girl who looked like she might break if I touched her. She looked to be around ten to twelve years old. Her hair was platinum, and she was quite beautiful, despite her age. In time, she would become the gem of the Kingdom.

She had been placed in iron restraints and had her mouth bound. Luckily for her, she spent most of the experience in a sleep-like state due to a mountain of drugs they had been injecting her with. The only part of her that was damaged was her clothes, which had become quite filthy and torn after being held hostage.

After the safe return of the princess, I requested that I might be given permission to take whatever I wanted from the organization's stash. Although I would have done so anyway, I thought I might as well ask first. I was given the OK and took several items, though most were of no use to me. The Boy Knight had discovered several documents within the Leader's personal study. If you look at the documents, it seems that the kidnapping of the Princess was planned. The details of her trip, her place of residence, and even her guard detail were in the documents we recovered. This certainly is becoming interesting.

Also, the boy forbid me from eating the men and insisted on cremation - What a bother.

The fact of this matter is that the kidnapping of the Princess was planned and that the Boy had to cooperate with a total stranger to retrieve the Princess. Now, the discoveries are being reported to the escort team. Sigh, this is losing it's worth quickly, though I'll tolerate it for now.

It seems that there will likely be a cover-up on the Princess' kidnapping.

Rather than there be calls for severe punishment and investigations for those responsible, it will be considered the mischief of the Tomboy Princess.

After this, I decided to do something I almost didn't want to do. I had the Illusion Lord use hypnosis on both the Boy Knight and the Tomboy Princess. I was interested in meeting the Royalty during the Boy Knight's report, and this was the easiest way to do so, as well as gain myself special privileges. Even so, its far too straight forward and I find it annoying.

After the process, the Boy Knight became as loyal to me as he was to the Princess, while the Princess thought of me as a special friend.

I also had their consciousness temporarily clouded while I ate all of the members of the organization.

Ability unlocked [Spider Yarn Web]

Ability unlocked [Poison Smoke Bomb]

Ability unlocked [Wiretapping]

Ability unlocked [Kidnap]

Well well, it looks like I managed to squeeze out even more from this mission. Before the sun rose in the morning sky, we withdrew from the hideout.

From the mansion, a torrent of flames rose up, destroying all of the evidence, including any truths that would be gained from the ashes.

After that I slept until noon. At that time the Boy Knight brought me a special reward for my services; he was presenting me with a letter from the Chamber of Commerce and a meeting with the Deputy Manager.

Tomorrow, I planned to depart from town.

Since the children of the next generation were going to be born soon, this return would only be temporary but necessary.

Oh, as for the rest of the day, Blacksmith-san took me shopping...

* * * 

Day 100

Blacksmith-san and her escorts took me to the streets for a short stroll and to purchase some supplies for the return trip. I didn't mind the walk. Rather, I was glad for it.

It was late in the morning before we were ready for departure from the city. Well, that was our plan anyway.

I was ready to leave the inn for the convoy when the Boy Knight, followed by the Princess, stopped me for the purpose of another contract of some sort.

The beginnings of the discussion were pretty dry, so I'll spare the details, I'm not one for the pleasantries of nobility. The point was that the Princess was thanking me for saving her the previous day.

That said, the fact that I am an Ogre sitting next to a Princess holding a conversation is a pretty good ordeal if I had to say so. Thus, I decided to give this situation my utmost patience.

I looked over to see what the Boy Knight was carrying. In his arms was a bag half his size that rattled like the sound of gold coins. At that moment, I got a troubling premonition of what I was going to be asked to do for such a payment. I have to say that I was a bit on edge to hear what sort of mission they had for myself and my group.

Then, the Tomboy Princess stated what she wanted. She was worried about her safety, given that her escorts had previously failed to protect her, and wanted us to escort her back to the Royal Capital.

That idea sort of made me annoyed, given our current situation. There was quite a bit of gold, but several children were going to be born soon.

I was just about to leave when I was told that the bag of gold was only a down payment and that the reward would be a Gold Plate. Once I heard that it was worth one million gold coins, my mind was set to help.

According to Redhead, you can take plates, such as silver plates given as quest rewards, to the royal capital where it can be traded for ten thousand gold coins.

To put it into terms that can be understood. I put a gold coin at around ten yen, so a silver plate is worth one-hundred thousand yen whereas this quest to escort the princess had a reward of ten million yen. I don't even have the slightest concern about taking the money of Royalty, even if it is taxpayer's money. The nobility just spends it on indulgences anyway.

That said, since the balance for the risk and reward is quite generous even if you put the plot against the Princess into consideration, it isn't a bad excuse to get into the royal capital.

Since I could always train the children as they were born, there shouldn't be any problems. Since the objective of our visit has already been achieved, I contemplated if we would be able to convince the Princess to allow us to drop off the non-combatant women at our settlement.

We waited an hour at the Demuki Gate as per the arrangement. When they did arrive, it was only the Boy Knight and the Princess. The Carriage was filled with various luxury goods to accommodate the Princess during her travels.

When I asked what became of her bodyguards, I was merely informed that they were suspected of plotting to aid in the kidnappings and were sent away separately after our contract was made.

When I pressed for further explanation, it seems that the two flat out ditched the escort team to come with us. Hearing this, I broke out in a cold sweat.

Honestly, the logic of these two gives me a major headache, but the contract was already made so there isn't any pulling out on it now. From now on, I just need to be vigilant.

*Sigh* This mission just got far more unreasonable.

After hearing this, I decided it was necessary to head to the royal capital as fast as possible. With my future war chest in mind, we set forth. For this mission, I am going to keep [Luck] and [Golden Rule] activated. Hopefully this prevents any further obstacles from obstructing this mission.

As we were going, I noticed pursuers chasing us. Once again, I pressed the two for more information. They told me that these people were some members of the escort team, along with a multitude of thugs.

When the pursuers had caught up, I was urged by the Princess to protect her.

This is the worst. I ended up having to slaughter all of them. This situation does not improve my civil appearance by any stretch of the imagination, though I can always pass the responsibility for the death of the escort team on to the Princess if the need ever presents itself.

I wonder how many days it will take before we reach the royal capital.

Since we needed to move at a constant rate, I moved the Princess' baggage in to my item box and left her carriage behind. The Princess was moved to my carriage because it was the safest location for her. Even so, the Princess apparently liked my shoulder, wanting to sit on it like a chair, she quietly sat there for quite some time.

The overall mood was not that bad, but my mind was on making sure the Princess arrives unharmed.

Hmmm, a tall Berserker with a girl on his shoulder... I think I've seen this from somewhere.